Translate

20 Şubat 2014 Perşembe

THE ETRUSCANS / ETRÜSKLER

ETRUSCAN, CHARİOT AND HORSES in the TOMBS

…Not long before an Etruscan tomb with a chariot had been unearthed at Populonia , on the Tyrrhenian coast. Archaeologists had collected with care what remained of the Chariot but had discarded the skeletons of two Horses that had been buried Harnessed to it.Somewhat shocked by this lack of naturalistic spirit, my friend had gone rummaging on the spot and retrieved what remained of the Horses.So it was that I found mysel presented with an unexpected, princely gift, an Etruscan horse pair.At first felt puzzled : the finding was well of careful study, but what could I do with a handful of broken bones? I started comparing them with other horses, of the bronze and iron ages, and soon discovered that the Populonia horses differed for a set of peculiar features….…As will be shown later , many peoples in antiquity practiced the ritual entombment of horses or used to bury bit sor other parts of harness or chariots in the tombs of warriors or champions….…Parts of horses are frequently found as votive offers in the tombs. In the basin of the Tobol river horse remains were found in almost every tomb: they are animals of rather large size and slender build. In a tomb at Kipelskoje the skeletons of two horses buried side by side were found near three human skeletons: other horses buried in pairs were found later in tombs of the same culture.These horse pairs were initially interpreted as draught animals for a chariot or a cart, but Kuzmina suggests that they may rather represent sacrifices to the twin god-heroes of life and death.Horse sacrifices were particularly frequent in the cemeteries of the Alakul culture, a variety of the great Andronovo cultural group, which occupied the territory of the southern Urals and part of northern Kazakhstan. Kuzmina listed several sites and among these hide burials ocur, but also burials of the whole animal. At Losevki in northern Kazakhstan a cemetery of the 14th or 13th century BC. Contained horse remains in which Barminzev (1958) observed a definite variation in size, from 13,2 to 15 hands, and in burials at Ushkatta, also of the middle Bronze Age , Zalkin (1972) recorded, among others, an animal that must have reached the size of 15,3 hands. This is perhaps the largest size obeserved in domestic horses prior to the Roman empire.The Andronova horses were described as mesomorphic by Barminzev but on the whole they were of rather slender form and light build: Kuzmina (1977) sees in them the possible forerunners and ancestors of the noble breeds of the present day, as for instance the Akhal Teke.Recently Gening described an interesting group of cemeteries of the older Andronova culture (about 1500 BC.) near the village of Rymnikski on the Sintashta river, South of Chelyabinsk, sout-western Siberia. There are several inhumation tombs and a characteristic feature is that almost every tomb is accompanied by sacrificed animals: cattle , sheep, rams, dogs and more frequently Horses.Sometimes only the hides, as usual with the skulls and the bones of the extremities were buried, but occasionally entire carcases were offered in sacrifice. In other cases skeletons were dismembered. There were in all 25 tombs with sacrifices of animals; they are very important documents and it is hoped that skeletal remains will be studied in detail.The second millennium witnessed a new development of equestrian art. Wheeled carts had been invented in the 4th millennium in the Middle East, to be used for oxen. They were built with solid disc wheels, usually made of three wooden planks held together by struts. During the third millennium solid Wheel carts were adapted to ases by the Sumerians of Mesopatamia and were also brought to Turkestan, where they were drawn by Bactrian, or tow-humped camels. In the second millennium the solid Wheel was superseded by lighter, spoked wheels and the heavy carts evolved into the light, highly manoeuverable two-wheeled war Chariot.Remains and figurations of chariots are rich in the cultures of the Middle East and in the countries around the Mediterranean. The dispersal of the two-wheeled chariot outside this area, among less refined cultures, is mainly witnessed by rather rough rock engravings from central and northern Europe, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, Kırghızıa, Siberia and Mongolia. In the cemetery of Sintashta, recorded above, the impressions of two ten-spoked wheels were found.In Turkestan the oldest evidence fort he horse is from level VI of Nemezga, belonging to the middle Bronze Age (second half of the 2nd millennium BC.) Miniature models of spoked wheels suggest that the light chariot was now in use. About this time the chariot crossed all Asia and reached China shortly before the end of the second millennium, possibly having been brought so far by the Tokharians….While the Andronovo culture flourished in western Asia, a related culture developed in the steppes between the lower courses of the Ural the Volga and the Don. It has been called the timber-grave culture because in its tombs, underneath a barrow of earth and Stones, a hypogean chamber was reinforced with powerful wooden logs: a habit that survived in the following millennium in the Altai mountains. The timber-grave people were sedentary farmers and skilled metal workers. They used the horse for meat, but held it in great esteem. “During the classical timber-grave period the horse appears as an important animal in both religious cult and everyday life. In graves and in habitation sites bridle parts, most frequently elongated cheekpieces and round ornamental plates of bones are found.”….At an unexpectedly early date the horse made its appearance in the mountain belt of Fars, South-western Iran. Tal-e-Malyan, in the Mars Dasht valley not far from Shiraz, was an important settlement for several centuries. The onager lived wild in this area and is encountered in Neolithic levels dating from 7000-6000 BC. The horse, on the other hand, is certainly an imported animal. It is represented by scanty remains from the oldest urban levels of Tal-e-Mayan (3400-2800 BC).A second level, belonging to the early Bronze Age (2100-1800 BC) is the most interesting: there was found a nearly complete skull of a horse of large size, jaws and other bones. The remains seem to come from middens, there is no evidence of ritual burials. A mandible of a horse shows the unmistakable trace of wear due to a metal mouthpiece. A third level of the middle Elamitic period (1500-1000 BC.) is of lesser interes….….In the century that followed the desturction of the Buhen fort there is no evidence of Horses. The violent disordes of that period may have prevented the development of a local cavalry, an expensive undertaking that only a strong political power could achieve. The Hyksos, as told, left no documents on the horse but an Egyptian text from about 1550 BC tells taht the Hyksos and the kings of the now emerging 18th dynasty alike had come into possession of a chariotry. An inscripion on a clay tablet relates that Aahmes, commander of the Pharaoh Amosis I (1570-1545 BC) besieged the invaders in their stronghold at Avaris in the Nile delta with his chariotry and drove them out; the latter in turn escaped on their own chariots. It seems thus that Hyksos and Egyptians had developed their cavalries independently from one another, and that Barbarians were only able to use it in their flight.Egyptians did not usually practice the entombement of horses and horse burials are exceptional. A horse skeleton was found in a cemetery of the 18th dynasty at Soleb (1580-1530) ; it belongs to an animal of comparatively small size, 13,2 hands, and somewhat stocky in build.Another horse skeleton was recovered from Thebes; it was buried near the tomb of Sen Mut, the favourite of Queen Hatshepsut (1430-1400) and wore a saddle cloth, which implies that it was used for riding….The Horse reached the Eastern Mediterranean both through eastern Europe and through South-western Asia. Rounded cheekpieces of bone, provided with spikes at their iner sides, are known from Mycene since the early Helladic period (200 BC). They are reminiscent of types found in southern Russia and Rumania and Kuzmina sees in them the influence of the horse civilization that had developed in the grassland belt since the Copper Age.These bits ae of the pattern used for draught horses, but rough clay figurines from Mycene, Cyprus and Crete also represent riders on horseback. The arrival of horse and chariots is also attested by figures on grave slabs, on terracottas and on coins; even figures of horses carried by sea on small rowing boats are known….In the hinterland of the Aegean area, in Thrace , the horse seems to have survived in the wild state through the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Domestic horses came into use in the Bronze Age; horse remains found in a pole dwelling at Eserovo, near Varna belong to this period. Bronze Age burials date about 1600-1400 BC contained traces of horse sacrifices, bits and chariots. According to Herodotus horse racing became common among the Etruscans around 540-535 Bc ….With the Etruscans ritual burial of horses and chariots appeared in central Italy. The oldest chariots burial is in the Tomba del Duce at Vetulonia at the turn from the eight to seventh century BC.Other chariots were found at Cerveteri in the Tomba Regolini Galassi; then at Monteleone di Spoleto, Marsiliana di Albegna, Castel San Marino ner Perugia, in a tomb near the ruins of the medieval town of Castro in the Vulsinian Hills, and in at least two different tombs at Populonia.

DATA ON HORSE BURIALS ARE MORE SCANTY ,

BECAUSE THEIR REMAINS WERE NOT ALWAYS COLLECTED. AND SOMETIMES

WERE NOT EVEN MENTIONED

IN THE RECORD OF EXCAVATIONS....!!!

ETRUSCAN TOMB FRESK in the Tomb of the Bulls, Tarquinia, "Achilles in Ambush." Mid 6th century B.C. A scene from the Illiad. The Trojan prince, Troilus, upon a stallion is ambushed at the well outside the walls of Troy by Achilles. Below, are trees representing winter, summer and fall, and between the trees is a girdle worn around the waist of Etruscan men, frequently appearing in Etruscan scenes. A wreath or garland hangs on the branch of the tree in winter, which may indicate the time of the hero's death.

The chariots are of rather varied patterns. Two specimens, representing typical examples of contrasting tendencies, will be described.The chariot from Monteleone di Spoleto, half way through the sixth century, has small wheels with nine spokes, a rather unusual number, and broad protruding hubs. The short body is protected by a high, bulging parapet in front and lower parapets at the sides, covered with bronze laminate ornamented with figured reliefs.A similar chariot and contemporary to this was recovered from a tomb near ancient Castro with two horse skeletons.The chariots from Populonia are of a different type, with large wheels. The last chariot to be found in 1955, near the San Cerbone farmhouse, is dated to the beginning of the 5th century BC and has been ideally restored by De Agostino.This is the tomb that contained the horse pair presented to the writer by his old friend, and which provided the cue for all this book. The chariot has two large four-spoked wheels, which is unusual for wheels of such size. Even more strangely, one pair of spokes is thicker than the other. The rims and the spokes were reinforced with iron; the tyres bear protruding, diamond-shaped knobs on their Rolling surfaces. The body, of oak wood, is rectangular light, with a flat anterior parapet and lower lateral parapets ending in metallic railings. Little was left of the wooden parts and the chariot was restored mainly with the guide of the iron and bronze reinforcements and friezes. The large heavy wheels and the light body provided a great stability : the pattern is clearly adapted for racing.A chariot from another tomb at Populonia had large wheels reinforced with an iner ring concentric with the rim.The remains of the two horses were patiently assembled from various fragments. An attempt to separate the bones of the two animals proved almost hopeless; they were identical in age, size and proportions. They had been killed at an age of about ten years and were rather small, between 13 and 13.1 hands, a size however which is not below the average of ancient horses. The most interesting fact is that these two horses turned out to be completely different from the Bronze Age horses of northern Italy and from contemporary horses of central and western Europe described by various authors.The limb bones are singularly slender, but with no trace of the weak complexion so apparent, in other ancient horses of small size. The joints are thin and well shaped, the shafts of the long bones full an strong. The long bones are so slender that one might mistake them for ases- they particularly resemble the bones of wild ases- but the characters of the dentitions an deven more conclusively of the tarsal bones, prove beyond doubt that they are really horses.In another Etruscan settlement, perhaps a temple or a market place, that a team of American archaeologists excavated on a hilltop near Murlo, South of Siena, few remains of horses were found among other animals. They obviously come from middens and display the features of the coarse breed of the terrmare and also of the Venetic tombs. On the other hand the two horse skeletons of the tomb near Castro referred to above, although badly damaged, seem to conform to the type o Populonia, but are of even smaller size 12.1 to 12.2 hands.These horses from Etruscan tombs are markedly distinct from those of the Bronze and Iron Ages of northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany and eastern Europe. It might have been intresting to compare them with the horses from the tombs of the ROYAL SCYTHS, but these were not recovered….…In 390 BC the Celts attacked Rome, triggering a reaction that proved fatal to them. In 228 they were defeated by the Romans at Talamone, a harbour in Etruria; in 191 their stronghold of Bononia (now Bologna) also fell. Eventually the Celts were subjugated and absorbed by the expansion of the young and aggressive republic. In the 2nd century BC according to Polybius, the Celts of the Po delta differed very little in living habits from the Veneti, but stil used their own language.Bound as it was to a gradual penetration rather than to a sudden invaion the Celtic culture in Italy diluted its own characters as it merged with local cultures and progressively lost many of its peculiarities, but stil preserved some Marks that make it recognizable.In Italy the Celts lived on farming an stock raising, but were above all warriors. Beyond the ALPS they had learnt the use of the war chariot and brought it to Italy, long after Villanovans, Etruscans and Veneti had adopted a mounted cavalry. In 295 BC the Celts and the Sannites jointly had an unfortunate confrontation with the Roman infantry at Sentinum in Umbria; the Celts escaped a heavy defeat fleeing on their chariots.

ALPAN TURCE / ALP "A TURKISH WORD" + TURCE

Unlike other Iron Age peoples who left cemeteries crowded with hundreds of tombs, the burials of the Celts are mostly scattered. They practiced inhumation burial and also the ritual burial of horses, sometimes with their chariots. At Rocca San Casciano, in the Apennines of Romagna , a tomb contained a warrior and a horse; at San Martino in Gattara not far from the former, a badly damaged tomb contained two horses and the remains of a chariot. Other Celtic tombs were found at Padova and at Santa Lucia di Tolmino, in the eastern ALPS. Other tombs with horses and harness were found at Montefortino, in the Marche region.The tomb of the chairot AdriaThe finest tomb was found in the outskirts of Adria in the Po delta, during the excavations for a canal the Canal Bianco, and has been restored in its original condition in the local archaeological museum.The Celts dominated the area between the fourth and the third centuries BC. Mixing in part with the Veneti. The tomb of the chariot belongs to the third century; unfortunately no human burial was found in the vicinity. Only few parts of the chariot were preserved : the types, some reinforcements of the hubs and of the shaft and little more. The horse skeletons, on the other hand, are complete and in good condition. Two horses were buried harnessed to the chariot, lying each on the side facing laterally. A third horse was buried between the wheels of the chariot, ying on its right side. This is certainly a saddle horse. The two draught horses have iron bits, both rather damaged. The saddle horse has a bronze bit of unusual pattern, with a solid, square-sectioned mouthpiece pierced by three holes in the middle and two horseshoe-shaped cheekpieces….Remarkably, the largest sizes are most frequently met with among horses of the bronze age. In the older Andronovo cultures of Kazakhstan sizes range up to more than 15 hands, although individual variations are great ; the Buhen horse from upper Egypt reached 14.3 hands and the horse fro the tomb of Sen Mut was not much smaller.Skeletal remains from the older HİTTİTE empire were found in two tombs at OSMAN KAYASI near HATTUŞA ; one tomb may be dated between the 17th and 15th centuries, the second between the 15th and the 14th.Each tomb contained an adult animal standing 14 to 14.1 hands high and several horses of smaller size. The limbs of the larger horses are more slender than the limbs of European horses of the smae size, and it is tmepting to see in them representatives of the fine oriental breeds.Coming to the Iron Age, late HİTTİTE tombs at NORŞUN TEPE in eastern ANATOLİA, of the 7th century BC contained two stallions and a mare. The stallions stood 14 to 14.1 hands high, the mare only 12.2….

"We do not know the names of the Kurgan nomads before 2200 BC, we know some names of these nomads from the Assyrian tablets ca 2200 BC: Guties, Turuks, Komans, Kangars; ca 1600 BC in China they are called Juns (Rongs) and Jous (Zhou); at approx. 800 BC in N.Pontic and Asia Minor they are called Cimmerians and Scythians; ca. 200 BC north of China they are called Huns, Juns, Tokhars (Yuezhi), Usuns, Saka, Kangars, and Tele; and in 200-400 AD they are called Huns in the west, in India, and across the eastern Eurasia, and Kangars and Usuns in the center of the Asia. "pdf:or;Türkic in English - N.KisamovTürkic Substrate in EnglishJOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES, October-December 2013, Volume V, Issue 4 Mikes International, The Hague, Holland, 2013,LİNK

“Ethnographers and archaeologists consider horse harness accouterments to be a prime marker of the nomadic mode of life: horse bits in the graves and special horse burials are widely spread throughout the nomadic territory from the Iron Age ( i.e. ca. 1000 BC) to the Medieval period ( i.e. ca. 1500 AD).”

“They practiced animal husbandry, in rubbish dumps at Kurgan hill-forts and villages are found bones of lots and lots of horses, many cattle, and a few pigs, sheep and goats. Few bones of wild game (such as deer) were found, so Kurganians were not a hunting culture. Horse-heads carved in diorite were found, with harness-marks cut into them to indicate bridles.

The Kurganian horse-herders, like the Scythians, may had rode geldings only, their main herds being kept wild under stallions, and controlled through the mares which were hobbled near the settlements and milked regularly. Both wild-horse bones and bones of domesticated horses were found in Kurgan sites, modern bone-analysis specialists can apparently tell the difference between the two types. Moreover, modern methods allow to discern between a harnessed horse and a herd horse. The chances of finding bridled horse buried with its owner exist even though for each riding horse were thousands of the herd horses.”

“Kurgan people used two- and four-wheeled wagons with big unspoked wheels of solid wood. Examples of these have been found, along with of clay images: toy wagons, buried with royalty (maybe?). Also found were copper figurines of yoked oxen in pairs, so oxen probably drew these solid-wheel carts - which were of about the same proportions, wheel to cartbed, as a child's toy cart with a low rim around it.”

"The people with the kurgan culture were Altaic-speaking (and partly turcica) and not Indo-European as so far recorded (ex. from Lithuanian archologist Marija Gimbutas Baltic nationalist ideology-soaked)." Mario Alinei

"30 percent of Greeks, Bulgarians, 24 percent of Serbs who do not like us at all, 35 percent of Armenians who do not like us also, 40 per cent of Britons and Germans , 99,7 percent of Basques is Turkish origin.

Today, 51 percent of the Europeans is Turkish origin.

Kurgan Culture is Turkish Culture.

the first Europeans were not Homo-Sapiens, it was Cro Magnon !

Homo sapiens entered in 16.000 BC. with R1a in Europe .

This is a very simple and naked truth.

the culture, historic, archeology and linguistic researchers must work together.